High-explosive shell



Mar. 20, 1923. 1,449,245.- W. W. PINKERTON.

HIGH EXPLOSIVE SHELL.

FILED SEPT. 24. 1919.

Emmi tax M lljam W Hnkerfon Patented Mar. 2%, 1923.

TENT GFFlQEH WILLIAIYL Vil'. PINKERTON, OF BOISE, ED151510, ASSIGNOR TO SECRETARY OF WAR/OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, TRUSTEE.

HIGH-EXPLOSIVE SHELL.

Application filed. September 2%, 1919.

Serial No. 326,081.

To aZZ whom it may concern.

Be it known that 1', VILLIAM \V. PINKER- won, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of Boise, county of Ada, and State of Idaho, have invented an Improvement in High-Explosive Shells, of which the following is a specification.

The invention described herein may be used by the Government, or any of its officers or employees in prosecution of work for the Government, or by any other person in the United States, without payment of any royalty thereon.

My invention relates to a simplified firing system for high explosive shells consisting primarily of a novel form ot' fuse percussion device the striker of which is held yieldingly in unarmed position and positively locked and supported against forword movement when in armed position. The simplicity of the mechanism of my invention renders it easy and inexpensive to manufacture and certain in operation.

In order that this invention may be clearly understood, reference will be made in the following description to the accompanying drawing, in which the single figure represents a vertical section of a projectile containing the preferred embodiment of my invention.

The bodv or head 1 forms a housing for the working parts OI my fuse percussion device, the curvature of the head being of the usual ogival form. The body 1 is threaded to screw into the projectile 2 and its head is recessed as at 3 to permit the use of a spanner wrench.

The body or head 1 is bored and counterioored to form the concentric hollow cylinders 1 and 5. Inserted into the upper part of the cylinder 4 is the striker 6 having a point 7 shoulder 8 and slanting surfaces 9, 10 which form ratchet tooth 11. Segmental spring fingers 13 are punched or formed in any suitable manner in the sleeve 26 and are located between cylindrical striker 6 and the side wall of cylinder lVhen in normal position, the striker is inserted in to the sleeve until the spring fingers, which are bent inward. frictionally engage the slanting surface 9 and thus retain the striker in normal orunarmed position.

The sleeve 26 which extends throughout the length of the cylinder 1 is then inserted into the cylinder until the base of the strikeris limited from further inward movement by the top wall of the cylinder 4. The sleeve 26 has near its central portion the circular sto shoulder 16 having a central opening of such diameter as to permit the passage of striker point 7, but to limit the rearward motion of the striker by means of the abutting action of shoulders 8 and 16. Mounted within the rear portion of the sleeve is the primary detonator casing 17 which has a body portion 19 and a forwardly extending boss 20 which contains the primer charge in the form of a fulminate cap located forward of dotted line 29. The boss and body are formed with a central opening in line with the striker point 7. Compressed between the body portion 19 and the shoulder 16 is the detonator spring 21.

The cylinder 5 is internally threaded at 25 and the detonator, detonator spring and sleeve are retained within cylinder 4 by means of a retaining nut 22 having a hub like extension 18. The felt pad 23 is inserted between nut 22 and secondary detonator casing 24: which also engages internal threads 25 and is screwed up tightly against pad 23. The body of nut 22 and its extension 18 are formed'with a central opening in line with the opening in primary detonator 17 in which opening a detonating charge as shown may be placed to insure conveying the explosive or detonating impulse to the body of the shell.

Upon initial shock of discharge, the propelling charge gives acceleration to the'projectile which will be transmitted to striker 6, but the inertia of the striker is such as to give it a relative retardation sufficientto overcome the resistance of spring fingers 13, and the striker will move rearward until such motion is limited by shoulder 16 engaging shoulder 8, point 'i'passing through the hole in shoulder 16, and forward motion of the striker is now limited by spring lingers 13 engaging in front of ratchet tooth 11. The striker is thus locked in position, the spring fingers 13 acting as supports to receive the force of impact from the movable detonator 17.

Upon the shock of impact of the projectile, the primary detonator casing 17 moves forward against the tension of detonator spring 21, and fulminate cap 29 strikes the point 7 of the striker setting oil the pr mary detonator, the 'fiame from which passing through the central openings in the detonator casing 17 and nut 22, initiates the explosion of secondary detonator charge within casing 24 which transmits the detonation in an effective manner to the explosion charge 27 which a high order of rig-49,245

detonation with proper fragmentation of the shell.

Having described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

In a projectile, a percussion fuse device including a sleeve having spring fingers and a stop shoulder, a striker housed within the sleeve and having shoulders to engage the ends of said fingers and inclined faces adjacent the shoulders against which the fingers normally rest, whereby the striker is normally held in unarmed position and released to armed position upon discharge of the shell and held in such armed position, and a detonator movable into cont-art with the striker upon impact oi. the shell.

XVILLIAM XV. PINKER'ION. 

